All About Books

After a less than stellar undergraduate career, a young man takes an unspecified job with an elderly Italian noblewoman at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills. A breezy and witty novel, “Villa Coco” by Andrew Sean Greer.

At one time it was almost romanticized as an affliction of poets, today tuberculosis is seen as a disease of poverty. In his book “Everything is Tuberculosis” author John Green tells the scientific and social history of how the disease has shaped our world- and how our choices will shape the future.

Guinevere and her brother raised themselves in the woods behind their Vermont home. Their mother was busy writing a fantasy series which would later explode in popularity. “The Children: a Novel” by Melissa Albert explores having two childhoods- one known to the public, the other not known.

This week on All About Books, host Pat Leach interviews Christine Lesiak who was a long-time television producer at Nebraska Public Media. They’ll discuss the creation of her newly published novel “Let Me Go”, and the differences between telling stories for TV and writing books.

An awkward guest staying too long in your home seems an unlikely plot for a novel. But it’s best-selling author Hans Christian Anderson visiting Charles Dickens, his 9 children, and his estranged wife. Anderson barely speaks English. “Five Weeks in the Country” by Francine Prose.